On our little adventure to Suzhou, we stayed over-night at a hotel, and went to Zhouzhuang the next day. This was my favorite part of our trip. It is a small town made up of canals that cross through like streets. It is about 900 years old. There are many original buidings that we were able to see, including a couple of residences. We also got to go on a gondola-type boat. The boat-lady sang old Chinese songs to us. There were really fun "tourist" shops. The boys kept us wondering how smart we were to bring them with us, but in the end, we were glad to have forged through anyway. The scary part of the day was when the tour-guide took us to a restraunt and ordered us the "local specialties". We suffered through that (and only paid for it for a few days), and then were back to our adventures. We were able to see an ancient style of Chinese opera. It was very interesting. I am excited to take our parents (and anyone else who wants to come and visit:-) to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang.
